28 February 2010

Canadian Olympic Hockey Gold Medalist Jarome Iginla on the Win

If you were one of the millions that watched the epic USA-Canada hockey game tonight, you undoubtedly noticed Canadian hockey phenom Jarome Iginla, responsible for feeding the perfect pass to Sidney Crosby who scored Canada's 3-2 OT win. Iginla, the the first black captain in NHL history, was only one of only four players on Team Canada’s roster that also won gold in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Fighting off a check from Ryan Suter and with his back towards the
play, Iginla was unable to see Crosby skating into the slot for the
give-and-go. But he listened for where his linemate was on the ice. And
after hearing his nickname being screamed, the Calgary Flames captain
wheeled around and fed Crosby a perfect pass before being knocked to the
ice. “I just tried to let him know where I was,” Crosby
said of Iginla. “He outmuscled the guy. That’s basically what it came
down to; a one-on-one battle and he won it and we were able to
capitalize on it.”

“We were talking all tournament to keep
communicating,” added Iginla. “We were saying all the time to let me
know if he was open and stuff. He let me know there. He was screaming.” When
he got up, all of Canada Hockey Place was screaming.

The Calgary Flames captain adds: "I’m very proud to be Canadian, to be part of these Olympics, to part of this team... And you know what I’m really proud of? To join the Canadians in setting that record. ... We were looking for our first one at home and then all of a sudden we’re setting a record. To be part of that I’m very proud and it’s an awesome feeling.”

I have to say it was a very stressful game for me. When the U.S scored with 24 seconds to go, I invented some new curse words in the rant that I went on. This game was a huge deal to Canadians and for the time that is was on many were able to put aside a lot of what divides us on a daily basis.